Easy pickings in first round for Cerritos

The first round of the CIF playoffs started Wednesday afternoon with the Cerritos High School girls tennis team, last season's Division 4 champions, getting off to fast start with a 17-1 rout of El Rancho.

Cerritos, which is the No. 1 seed in the division, was a heavy favorite but that didn't keep Cerritos coach Alvin Kim from being excited to start the playoffs.

El Rancho coach Cindy Lippstreu knew they had a tough team to play against.

“We knew it was a long shot, but the kids just want to play and see what it's like playing against a No. 1 team,” Lippstreu said.

“It makes us feel pretty confident going into the next round,” said junior Katie Wee, who came off the bench to help the Dons.

Cerritos secured the easy win with the help of singles Shirline Wee, Taylor Heath and Sami Leung. The doubles were led by the teams of Rachel Guaderrama-Michelle Yang, Siv Chevvuri-Justine Wu and Toby Tsai-Colleen Phong.

Shirline Wee and Heath swept their opponents, 6-0.

“It's nice to start the first round of CIF with a big win,” Wee said.

The Dons face Thatcher of Arizona in the second round Friday.

“We've beat them before, but you never know, they could have a new player,” Heath said. Cerritos and Thatcher met in the semifinals in 2011, with Cerritos winning, 13-5.

“We're looking forward to meeting them again. We came out with a comfortable win last time,” Kim said. “I feel the team is more excited, there's a lot of energy. There's a focus, a sharpness about the players. We know exactly what we want, four more wins.”

Cerritos is the only area team moving on in Division 4, Mayfair and Norwalk falling in first round matches Wednesday.

Los Alamitos beat Palm Springs, 18-0, to advance to the second round in Division 1 play.

Only one of three Moore League teams is still alive, Millikan winning a tiebreaker, 71-69, after drawing with Glendora, 9-9. The Rams face Sea View League champ Capistrano Valley on Friday.

League champ Wilson was upset by Santiago, 13-5, and Murrieta Valley, for the second consecutive season, eliminated Poly, 17-1.